Sunday, November 22, 2015

Play Felt Gingerbread House

I kept telling myself to wait just three more days until Thanksgiving was over to pull out the Christmas crafts, but I couldn't help it! Christmas crafts are so much fun to make and I LOVE how many of them can involve my kids. In the past, I have made felt Christmas trees for my kiddos, so they can decorate them over and over and leave my tree alone. This year it hit me. Why not do the same thing with a Gingerbread House? My kids were both thrilled when I told them my idea and sat with me the whole time I was making their house. They have had a blast with it.

This house is super easy to make, it took me about a half hour and some basic supplies.

Empty your tissue box and save the tissues for later, or just wait for one to be empty. It is cold and flu season, I am sure you will end up with a Kleenex Lotion box in no time! Cut a long strip of tan felt. It should be slightly wider than your box and tall enough to go all the way up the sides.

Cut a skinnier strip of tan. It should fit in the space you see above. Hot glue that skinny strip to the box and then hot glue the long strip on the opposite side, folding it around the edges, kind of like a present.

Cut a long strip or white or sparkly white felt and glue around the edge.

Fold your cardboard piece in half, so it creates the roof.

Cover the roof in sparkly white and hot glue a triangle of tan on the edges to complete the house. I didn't do any gluing on the bottom of the roof, so that it still folds easily for storage.

Fold the felt on the bottom into the opening and hot glue. You don't want to cover the opening because you want a place to be able to store the pieces.

Using different colors of felt, cut out pieces for your house. I cut a brown door, some white frosted windows, a wreath, some hearts and a tree which I glued little ornament pom-poms to.

I also gave my daughter some pieces of felt and let her cut out a bunch of different shapes to play with to. She had a blast just with a few scraps making little decorations for the house.

Let your kids decorate the house over and over again with the felt pieces and when they are done, just slide them inside the Kleenex box for storage!

When we are down for the count in our house, we count on Kleenex Lotion. It is the only facial tissue I can count on to be soft on little noses when they have to be wiped over and over again. We love to buy them from Sam's Club because then we always have enough on hand for cold and flu season. Being able to create cute crafts from the boxes is just a bonus!

How clever! I know what you mean about trying to wait for the crafts... Earlier this month I had some crafting deadlines to hit for the design team I'm on so I had Halloween decorations still up through most of the house, a Veteran's Day banner hanging up in one room for photographs, and a whole pile of Christmas card samples set up in another! Felt like a department store holiday closeout section ;-)

What cuteness! We have been working on our gingerbread house all weekend. I was going to make a post out of it but my 2-year old broke it before I took pictures. Never let kids play with exhibits until pictures are taken. lol

This gingerbread house is so cute! I love the idea of using a tissue box. With all the winter colds, we have plenty of those to spare. We love holiday crafts and I could definitely see us doing this one this year!

I love this idea. This year I tried to make real gingerbread houses with the kids and it was a disaster...Maybe this felt version will do the trick. Plus, I love working with felt. Thank you for sharing!

If you have time, I would love for you to share this post over at the Holidays Celebration link party that is live right now! It's such a neat idea, I'm sure our readers would love it too! (http://keepingitrreal.blogspot.pt/2015/11/holidays-celebration-link-party-3-is.html)